Gone are The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and The West Wing. About to go are The Wire and BattleStar Galactica. Hopefully we still have the finale of Deadwood to come. I think soon there will be a few great shows around instead of a whole host of near-perfect intelligent dramas as we have had recently.

I won't call time on the Golden Age proper until The Wire has finished, as that is commonly held to be the single greatest television show of all time. While that is still on the air we are still in a Golden Age. But one thing which may have hastened the end of this period is the dismissal of the HBO chief after his arrest. A changing of the guard at the producer of the highest-calibre shows of recent times may freshen things up over time, but in the short term I think it's going to be a bit bumpy.

I'm not saying that this is the end of great TV. Just that it may be the end of a near-perfect period for the highest calibre TV drama.

Also, a few years ago I think I read that David Chase said that "however it ends for Tony, it won't end well". So I really am hoping that it does end badly for Tony. Maybe by taking the rap for something that AJ does. Or being arrested because of something a member of his family does. It really would be fitting for the final episode of this show to see the worlds of Tony's family and 'the family' collide in brutal fashion.

This show is a true high-water mark for television. Much like "Twin Peaks", it set the stage for a lot of great shows we all enjoy today.

I hope for all you watching tonight, the finale goes out in style.

Salut.

THIS IS NO WAY to end a series like this.

I DON'T GIVE A FUCK how you intend to set up a major motion picture.

Do you GET ME?!

My final vote: It was a memborable finale.

no - you say, "wow what a sell-out. Instead of actually giving us a conclusion, he pulls a 'well, just in case we get an offer for more money, lets not do something we can't undo." - he wrote a cliffhanger to finish the series. You dont applaud that. You dont praise that. You call it what it is: a cheap stunt.

It is a TV show, episodic in structure, and lacking anything resembling the rising and falling action, or any of the structure usually attributed to those other types of narrative. I mean over the course of the entire series, not throughout arcs or even seasons.

So it makes no sense to expect an ending that fits with those type of narratives when it's a completely different animal.

Your mind/imagination/whatever added that bit. Give it up.

@downtheriver: I thought the ending was weak. Ambiguity != clever writing. Yes, it's open to interpretation. It's also easy and requires no creative effort. And stop saying that we'd be crying if they showed Tony getting shot. That's called a "straw man" argument: you claim we would make a particular argument (which is weak) and then you knock it down. It's crap.

And oh by the way, it wouldn't have had to be a graphic scene. Show some guy start to draw a weapon right before the cut, and the ending is a hundred times better.

But if you are going to argue that it's a good ending from a creative perspective, then I respectfully disagree. It's weak. Please, everyone else, note that there is a huge gap between "no ending" and "wrapped in a bow," and I would've have preferred something somewhere in that gap.

Give 2007 back to the Indians. Classic.

From that I inferred that you meant I would appreciate the ending if only I were a professional screenwriter, and to that I say that you shouldn't have to be a pro to appreciate it.

From a creative standpoint, it would've been a lot harder to actually deliver a payoff to six seasons and, especially, those final five minutes of tension without resorting to a cliche. A great writer could do it. Chase chose not to. Whether that's because he couldn't, or didn't want to, scarcely matters.

Imbecile.

It's the same here. Many viewers have been watching film and TV for a long time, and many have potentially even studied creative writing to a greater or lesser extent. Informed critiques can be given even by those without professional sales.

In that vein, I criticize the ending of this show. Without commenting on whether I've ever sold any writing professionally, I think I have a basis for offering a critique. Bottom line: I never expected the loose ends to all be tied up (because that's bad writing, IMO) and I never expected a Scarface ending or some other cliche.

I just expected *something*.

See, anyone can argue with insults.

Have you never watched a football game and listened to the color commentator, invariably an ex-player, and thought to yourself, "You know, I could really enjoy the game if that idiot would just shut up?"

The best example I can think of is actually a baseball one: Joe Morgan. Hall of fame second baseman. One of the all-time greats, no doubt. But the guy just doesn't have a clue, and he barely understands the game he played. He buys into all the old assumptions and so-called "common knowledge" about the sport. Not only does he not challenge any of that; he decries others who make the attempt. He's a moron, and there are legions of people who've never played professionally who can offer a much more intelligent opinion on baseball strategy than he can.

Most of the time when a coach or player says, "Well, you've never played the game so you don't really understand," it's just an excuse to cover a dumb-ass decision.

As others have pointed out, the guy in the Members Only jacket (Paolo Colandrea) never played anyone on the show before. He's a guy who was spotted in a Jersey pizza place and was used just for his look.

Most of the others in the diner have no previous credits of any kind. One of the two African-American kids has some previous credits, but nothing on Sopranos.

So we're back to a "nothing" ending, alas.

I don't think I can put it any simpler. Whether people kill for other people is about as irrelevant as can possibly be.

Then cut to black. No continuing music. Just black, no sound. Then silent credits.

This is what we saw, with absolute certainty.

I believe Tony got hit.

Some people seem to think that if you didn't like the end, then you simply don't get it. First off, nobody knows for sure if he lives or dies. That much is apparent. But I recall the Angel series finale ending in much the same way, yet I thought that was perfect. It didn't matter who lived or died, they just went on doing what they had always done.

I guess the problem I had with the Sopranos finale is that the entire season has been about building up the tension. I hated the first half of the season, but I was really getting into the second half because it seemed like the tension was building to something big. If we were suppose to feel like what it was like in Tony's shoes, then I must have missed something. Although he was always fearful of the law, he never seemed to care much about death. He even seemed to manage a full night's worth of sleep in the safehouse.

Some of my other problems with the end: What's up with Silvio? It seemed like his "end" was also engineered for an eventual movie. They should have just killed him. Also, Sylvio or Bobby should have been able to put up a fight. I had assumed they were saving the great fight scene for Tony. If Tony wasn't going to get it (on screen) then Sylvio shouldn't have gone out like a punk. What was up with the "we might actually win this thing" line? That agent may have been on a friendly basis with Tony, but only reluctantly gave Tony the info he needed. For him to think of Tony as "we" was a bit weird. This AJ story should have been done a season or two ago (I had said that back then as well). The club storyline works him into the family business while still allowing for ambiguity. Same with Meadow's storyline. They should have skipped the whole Finn nonsense and jumped right to what they left off with (i.e. interesting Patsy story lines). It seems like the point of the last two seasons was to slowly get us to the middle of the story.

2007 had the worst season finales ever. Throwing in a WTF twist at the end (BSG, Lost, Sopranos, etc) is just lazy writing and I'm getting tired of it. Finales weren't a problem in need of fixing. They use to be the best eps of the year.

I can only presume that those of you who claim to have seen Meadow in the last shot (I say "claim" because there are still no screencaps/vids posted anywhere) clearly are getting the special "Area 51" feed that the aliens broadcast specially for people who prefer to wear tin foil hats.

Or, alternatively, your mind filled in that bit because that's what would naturally come next, and since you clearly don't have a recording of it, you couldn't go back and confirm or deny. Happens all the time.